Dinosaur

What a brilliant day at Dinosaur for our monthly Brown Bag event where we got deep into Generative AI with the insightful Louis Georgiou The pace and evolution of AI is truly astounding, and we’re loving exploring the many possibilities that AI is bringing to our agency and industry.

Did we know that Taylor Swift grew up on a Christmas tree farm? Yes. Could we recognise the Led Zep logo? Yes. Was it enough to make Dinosaur winners of last night’s 2024 NABS Music Quiz? Er… listen, we all helped raise a good amount of money to support mental wellbeing in the marketing and advertising industry – and that’s what counts 😊

YOU ARE A THIEF.    All thinkers steal, whether they realise it or not.   Or in Mark Twain’s words, “all ideas are second-hand, consciously and unconsciously drawn from a million outside sources.”    This applies to everything from a memorable headline to a strategic breakthrough. What feels like a spontaneous flash of insight in the moment usually isn’t as spontaneous as it seems.   In the book ‘Strategic Intuition’, William Duggan shows how such “flashes of insight” actually rely on two things: ↳ Prior knowledge ↳ The ability to combine and apply lessons from the past in the now   He calls this ability “intelligent memory.”    This phenomenon explains stuff like Napoleon’s genius on the battlefield, according to Duggan:    “Due to his study of military history Napoleon had many possible elements to draw from. This unique combination of information from the shelves of his mind, and not only from his own experience, formed his winning military strategy.”   Napoleon’s neural circuitry was no different to yours or mine, but having stocked “the shelves of his mind,” he was able to “see patterns where others see chaos.”    The more ideas you collect, the more dots you connect. In that spirit, let’s take a little left turn…   A few years ago, the American economist Matt Clancy looked at the *maths* of how ideas combine. He looked at US patent subclassifications and ran the numbers on how many different ways you could combine the ideas they represent. The number of combinations was about the same as the number of atoms in the universe (if you then stuffed 500 more universes worth of atoms inside every atom!).    Whilst the scale might not be quite so cosmic, we see endless creative possibilities with our clients. And the longer we work together, the more useful stuff gets stored on our mind-shelves. Our longest-running client has been with us for 17 years. Every year, our creative options only multiply.    That’s partly down to getting to know their organisation and their audience better, but it’s also thanks to all the other ideas we bump into day-to-day. The conversations overheard at the nail bar or on the bus. The obscure films we watch and the music we love. Our brains are stealthily pilfering images, words, and moods all day long, whether we realise it or not. So go ahead, be a thief.    Fill your mental shelves with interesting inputs and let your mind work its magic.    Know that whether you’re reading Homer’s Odyssey or watching Home Alone, it’s all creative fuel.    William Duggan Matthew Clancy Mark Beaumont Image: Screenshot from Home Alone (1990, dir. Chris Columbus) All rights belong to their respective owners

We're proud to announce that our campaign for NHS Greater Manchester took home the Creative for Good: Health award at the Prolific North Creative Awards last night!   The harsh reality is that up to 2 in 3 smokers will die prematurely, and those most at risk are high-dependency smokers but, they’ve heard the facts before. So, by disarming them, we get to ask the uncomfortable question: what will you miss more? Samantha N. Jess Holloway Sophie Williamson (MCIM)

We’re hiring for an Account Director! We’re looking for an account director to lead some of our most exciting accounts. You’ll be responsible for delivering all sorts of creative projects for famous household brands. This role would suit a strategic thinker and warm communicator who has experience of managing a small team and working in a creative agency delivering integrated campaigns. To find out more, please email [email protected]  

We’re hiring for an Account Director! We’re looking for an account director to lead some of our most exciting accounts. You’ll be responsible for delivering all sorts of creative projects for famous household brands. This role would suit a strategic thinker and warm communicator who has experience of managing a small team and working in a creative agency delivering integrated campaigns. To find out more, please email [email protected]  

We got asked what we do, so we came up with this.

Ever called in sick for your poorly pup? Your pet has a busier social life than you? We’ve teamed up with Pets at Home to dig up the wildest stories and confessions from the nations pet parents. Over two packed days at Tatton Park and instore, our TikTok content revealed the lengths we go to for our pets. Here’s how we did it.

The Dinosaur team are supporting our friends at NABS by entering a team into the 2024 NABS Music Quiz – all in aid of raising money to advance wellness in our industry community. Reckon you can pip us to first place?   Enter your team here: https://lnkd.in/egrVPJcb

Did you see the Sport Gives Back Awards on ITV last week? If so, you’ll have seen that this year’s event was proudly sponsored by The Co-operative Bank. It was a brilliant celebration of charities, organisations and individuals who change people’s lives through sport. In creating the show’s sponsorship idents, we helped The Co-operative Bank to demonstrate how they, too, support those who make a real difference in their local communities through sport. Check out our latest work as we tell the transformative story of a young diver.